Discussion Topic

Yo, so although our ascent of ZM is nothing remarkable compared to a lot of reports on this site...it was significant achievement on a personal level for my partner Brian and I. For us it was a step up in difficulty over anything in our past experience, and felt like breaking through a gateway toward more serious routes on El Cap and beyond. I dedicate the climb and this TR to my lovely wife who, this year more then ever has supported and strived to understand my El Cap addiction. Thanks babe!

I'm not going to give you guys a pitch by pitch blowdown of the route. If you want that, go up there and get it yourself....it's all there. If you want specific beta, email me. All I'll say is bring extra hooks and duct tape if you want pro in some spots. I will describe the highlights of the climb for me, most of which didn't have anything to do with the climbing itself, but the experience as a whole. If you don't want to read my introspective intro, then just skip down to the pics, they tell it all.

So, my fascination with ZM started probably 15 years ago when I first considered climbing El Cap, and grew over the years as I stared at it from the base of the Zodiac. The name alone capured my intrigue and imagination, what does it mean? I still don't know...and where does the route go? Even after completing it I can still only pick out about 3 main features on the route...the rest is still mysterious. However when we were up there it all seemed to come together and the path was obvious. Bridwell's routes are amazing, this was my second after South Seas/PO, and on both climbs I just felt a sense of wildness and awe...constantly asking myself wtf was he thinking!?

About 10 years ago, after doing a couple of easy EC routes I asked my friend and wall mentor Ryan Shreve (RIP bro), to go up on ZM with me. The first thing he said was, "Dude...that's a death route, a loose horror show." The second thing he said was "Go do more trade routes first, then we'll get on A4." At the time that second comment really crushed my ego, being a young punk full of piss and vinegar, thinking anything on EC would be easy. Now I know why he gave me those wise words and I am glad I followed his advice. I felt all my combined trade route experience prepared me for this climb, and as a result I allways felt confident and in control, never scared, like I was climbing in the best style I could. It's obvious on the route that many previous climbers didn't prepare enough, as evidence by all the drilled bathooks next to features and heads smashed into nice natural placements. These guys were scared, lazy, incompetent, whatever...and imho didn't respect Bridwell, his route, the rock, or future ascensionists. But whatever, I digress...

It's hard to say which is my favorite El Cap climb, but this one was definately up there. It was without a doubt, from start to finish, the smoothest ascent I've had, everything flowed...from one place ment to the next, one task to another...it all came together perfectly. Two minor mistakes, 1st I forgot my foam pad in the truck,which I regretted during the storm, but Brian was kind enough to let me use his. Second, I forgot to top off my Flask. wtf was I thinking! Again Brian shared his rations...of course, he ran out of papers the second day, so we are even. We fixed one Beak on the route, which I regret, I tried for 30 minutes on that thing, till the tie off snapped and gave up. I think I would have needed my chisel to get it. Still usable and bomber though.

Backing up...
After a nice warm up climb on Zodiac with my bros Justin and Blake, my intention was to solo ZM. Still kind of reluctant to solo, I spoke with my friend Mike Ousley in the Meadow, and asked him if he wanted to climb something, and explained my plan to solo ZM. His wise words were, "Well Bone, are you soloing because you don't have a partner, or because you really want to solo?"

hmmm...good question, simply stated yet profound and fundamental. I decided the answer was a little of both. Yes, I didn't have a partner who I felt was ready for ZM. My usual solution when I don't have a partner is to take up a less experienced friend and show him the ropes. But on this climb I felt like I'd be pushed enough as it was without worring about a n00b. I had soloed El Cap before via Zod, and it was one of the richest experiences of my life, and also one of the loneliest. I recall swearing I'd always prefer to do the Cap with a partner from then on, because...well, it's just more fun being up there with your bros. Still, however soloing has some strange appeal and still draws me...

Anyway, the week before up on Zodiac we watched a couple of solid climbers over on T-Trip, handling business, getting sh#t done, and having fun in the process...I was impressed. It was Eric and Brian and we had met them at the base. We met again on the East Ledges and had a great time laughing and telling stories about our climb. When I got back to the Valley and was getting my solo mojo on, I ran into Brian again right before he was fixing on Mescalito. We pretty much instantly clicked and had a great time chatting it up. For whatever reason after getting two ropes up on Mesc, things fell through for him and his partner...and he gave me that look, I could instantly read in his eyes, "Can I come on ZM with you dude?" He didn't have to ask, I beat him to it..."Well, why don't you just come with me?" I said. So plans flip flopped and there I was about to get on the most chalanging climb of my life with a guy I had never climbed before! F*#k it! I had a good feeling about Brian and he didn't dissapoint, the efficiency I witnessed on T-Trip carried right over. We swapped leads and shared the cruxes and all the work equally. The thing that sold me on climbing with Brian so quickly was his attitude, always smiling and positive from start to finish. His moto, "It goes, just pick the right hook!"

We were gettin ON IT! The first day started out as one of the best I can recall, when I got a call from a bro back home telling me Phish just got back together! Heck yeah! And now I'm jumping on El Cap, life couldn't be better! Dreams are coming true! The day ended in the best fashion as well, pounding beers with Ammon and Sean O'Niel at the base of T-Trip as they prepared for their push of T-Trip. We partied hard and fed off Ammons overwhelming energy and positive vibe. How could we not 'send after such a send off! I was feeling a little regretful in the morning trying to shake off the hangover. Ammon's solution, pound another beer!

Brian gets more then his share of run-out hooking on loose features. p8

Brian approaches the 9 O'clock roof. p10

And does some of the craziest acrobatic cam hook moves I've ever seen, red tag line shows the angle...not windy.

Pigs lowered out. Not sure why I like Pig pictures so much.

p11, A2 Cool! Into C1+ awkward shitty, which I bash my knee on in the dark (our 1 pitch after sunset).

p12 One supposed A4 crux, was more like C2 thanks to Pete's bomber fixed heads.

Linking crazy features. Not sure which pitch...

Brian pushes the rope up p13 looking for the way.

Somebody needs to leave their mark, what does it mean? Whatever it means I think it's BS. Grafitti.

Approaching Pete's junkshow, pulling through it happens to be the crux of the route, but the wine and beer we dug out of his bag elieviates any hard feelings.
[img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/mlambert60/SPjKz0Vi6rI/AAAAAAAAEow/89q-YRQGIqU/s800/IMG_0411.JPG[img]

Cruxin!

Tom's view

p14

Brian starts p15, almost home!

Flyin' the colors one last time.

Parting shot. Top out before dark! Had to pound one of Pete's beers at the belay in celebration.

So there it was, a great climb with a great new friend. The thing that made this climb so special for me was the people I ran into and shared it with along the way. Brian and all the monkeys seemed to be there and full of encouragement. Old friends in the Meadow and at the bridge KFC, Bobo, Nico, Ammon, Ivo, Blaze, Mike, Nanook, Rich, Kate, yeah....even you Pete. You all made my trip. Can't wait till next time.

Sitting in my office with computers all around breaking. Fed up. Had enough! This was truly inspirational and came at the right time! I hope one day I can be as good a climber as you (and the other folks here)!

As one of the FA "party" I say, big congrats! great job, nice TR! Glad after 27 years the route still delivers. I got the first on the Lightning Bolt roofs, so really enjoyed those pics. I got to do a 20th anniversary ascent with my son, I guess I will have to start planning for a 30th anniversary trip up there soon. Maybe that "awkward C1" double edge sword flake would go free!

lambone, great job on zm, i thin the graffiti is korean as i made as ascent right after them and the rock dust was still there. i think they made it with rock drill. i popped 5 heads on the route, assuming i was a little heavier than them, but really bad form to desecrate the rock that way. ciao, shipoooi

"Zenyatta Mondatta was originally going to be called Trimondo Blondomina, meaning "three blond guys (dominating the world)," but the band did not want another title referring to "blond" so it was shot down. They reached a consensus with Zenyatta Mondatta. Zenyatta Mondatta is supposedly a composite of several things. "Zen" comes from the eastern religion. "Yatta" is rumored to have ties to Kenyatta (the leader of the Mau Mau's of Congo-Zaire-Kenya). "Mond" comes from "Monde" - the French word for world. The whole thing was then articulated in such a way to sound like "Reggatta." Another possibility is that the title came from "Zenith" and "Monde," which means "Top of the World." A third theory: In Japanese, Zenyatta Mondatta has a somewhat rude meaning: "gave money, gave a massage."

Hey Pete, I don’t want to hijack this thread with my BS but yeah my back and kidneys feel fine now… I never ended up sending anything on that trip so I feel in some ways I just wasted my time up there but in other ways I felt like I learned the lesson that you can’t win every battle and what comes around goes around… there will be plenty of time for suffering later.

Ditto for what Hollyclimber said. I loved what you wrote. If we were having beers, I'd be saying all the same stuff. Proud send and an awesome report with outstanding pics. ('aint it great to have Tom Evans shooting your trip!)

Drilled hooks and bathooks are two different things. Bathooks refer to a blank section with a hole drilled straight in, ie. instead of a rivet.

Drilled hooks that Lambone refers to are hooking spots that were perhaps sloping and had a small divet added. On first ascents bitd, a couple of taps on a drill were considered fair game to make an unusable spot usable.

Though this was debated back then as well, and there are climbers who remain vehemently opposed (Steve Grossman is one). I was fricken 18 years old, and for the most part took advice from Bridwell when it came to FA nailing style.

To some this is considered controversial, and one problem is that a well crafted effort on the FA, often gets hacked up as more enhancement gets done by subsequent ascents.

So, NO, we did no bat-hook moves up there. YES, we enhanced some slopers, and yes there are probably a bunch of added hook divets. Such is the fate of modern aid walls.

Thanks, Peter. I want to go up there this spring and try do it in it's cleanest most original form. Also, given that a copperhead is the first tool of the inept, I'll be leading with a butterknife and taking out any head I can climb past by other means.

Thanks Mark, had fun making this TR. ZM held a huge ominous stigma in my mind for years so I remember being pretty elated when we ticked it in decent wall style. Fond memories of my spontaneous impromptu partnership with BriGuy and hope to climb with him again someday. Solid Waller that Bri...Guy.

I remember a combination of enhanced hook placements and straight bathooks, for instance the whole hooking section above the p5 anchor...Had my palms all sweaty but turned out to be the easiest hooks I've placed on El Cap. Also we came across many drilled bathooks next to (or to avoid) existing features. Too many to remember and count. Some may have been from missing features. But I remember being disgusted numerous times on good gear otherwise. I often saw them while cleaning where BriGuy climbed right past them.

Bring patching material...

I think ZM has gotten "cleaned up" fairly regularly over the years and it's prolly overdue.

Nevertheless besides a lot of fixed gear and enhancements, I think it is a pretty cool route. Runouts above small heads and hooking on loose flakes keeps it pretty exciting. Though I led the odd pitches and never remember being unusually scared.

Bummer, that sounds like a lot more holes than I remember on the 20th anniversary ascent. Wow, this year is the 30th anniversary! Maybe I should get up there again...A lot of traffic, and some heavy handedness has transpired in 10 years.

Takin an old friend up the Nose for his first wall this spring. Hopefully something a little more technical in the fall. I have had two baby girls since this ZM climb so things are a bit different now...

Lambone, good work, nice TR, excellent photo's. This TR shows alot about the climb. Nice consistently steep clean climbing with that Lightning Bolt pitch in the middle of it all. We did it in 84 and it was a big eye opener to real genuine A4.

Dale Bard, Ron Kauk and myself were the first to climb the first four pitches before Bridwells first ascent. We were stormed off and left fixed ropes. Before we knew it Bridwell and team ran up and took the first ascent away from us. That was the way it was back then. It bummed me out for a short time but that's the way it goes. On the first four pitches we placed few copper heads and bolts. I know that when Bridwell did the first ascent some bolts had to be placed on those pitches. Maybe things broke off or they couldn't find our hook placements but they did and continued to put up a fine route.

I was at the bridge this June and IC Kang (the Korean leader of Team Extreme Riders) engaged me in a long discussion about the graffiti on ZM.

7 years after I posted this he was still concerned that I knew the reason behind the graffiti and that he had taken action to educate future wall climbers from Korea that this was not acceptable.

Apparently two leaders of TER were killed in a mountaineering accident on Thalay Sagar. They had plans to climb ZM the next season. Well some of their partners in mourning climbed the route and carved in this memorial.

IC kindly asked me to find this thread and explain for him, that he understands why it was considered disrespectful to El Capitan and the big wall climbing community, and to let people know that current Leave No Trave ethics are being taught in the Team Extreme Rider climbing school. But he asks that some sympathy and understanding is given to the climbers who carved these letters out of grief for their lost partners.

I have a lot of respect for IC Kang. We shared many laughs on the bridge this last season. He's a good man, and a friend.

Here is a post he made in a thread titled "Graffiti on El Cap" about the topic.

May 31, 2010 - 01:31am PT
First of all, I would like to apologize for that matter as a Korean climber.
As a person who loves mountains and nature, I am sure that I feel the same way if I find flaw on a valuable wall.
Those are Korean characters and the names of two Korean climbers, who accidently fell and died at “Thaley Sagar” in Pakistan in 1998.
They were the co-founders of “Extreme Rider”, a rock-climbing school in Korea established in 1997 and the pioneers in big wall climbing in Korea.
Now many succeeding rock climbers are working actively all around the world.

After the accident, a person who was their friend and had a plan to climb the El-Cap did it.
I am sure that it was neither taking down a foreign country, nor an arrogant behavior.
They had never done that before even though they had climbed Yosemite several times for 1994 through 1997.
I am not a representative and a spokesman of Korean climbers, but I will do my efforts to ensure that such an act will not happen again.